Advice about TESU (Expiring soon)

[BigDad92]

Hello everyone, I'm new to DegreeForum,

I've been doing some research about continuing my education online, I'm ready to get started and have made contact with TESU to get more information. The admissions adviser told me that they have been waiving the $75 application fee this week, an offer that will expire tomorrow.

I intend to acquire a BSBA in CIS: https://www.tesu.edu/business/bsba/Compu...ystems.cfm

My plan was to keep researching and figure out how to complete 80-90+ credits online and then transfer them over to TESU.

TL;DR
My main question is should I take advantage of the fee waiver and apply to TESU now, or wait until i'm ready to transfer the bulk of my credits?

Another reason I might consider applying now is because I may be able to get a grant or scholarship (to help pay for the online course websites) if I am enrolled in a school. (Can that money be used for that?)

1.The adviser told me that if I go ahead and apply and am accepted, i'll be enrolled in the school, at what point do I pay for the actual schooling? Can I just be enrolled and do my (study/saylor/SL) credit exams without paying TESU yet?  

2.TESU accepts 117/120 credits, does this really mean I could use 117 credits from (study/saylor/SL) and do the last 3 at TESU?

3.I've read that I will need to pay a fee to have my ACE transcript sent over to TESU, will that include all the credits i've earned or just one at a time? So then should I wait until i'm completely ready to send them all over to pay the fee?

4.Apprently TESU has a "Residency Waiver" of $1800-$2500. I'm not sure what this means or if/when do I have to pay it?

5. (This is a sneaky one) The user "Life Long Learning" said: "Best deal in an AAS is from WVNCC/Pierpoint (Transfer in 60/60, and FREE)".  Could I get these 60/60 credits while working on my BSBA from TESU and use them for this degree? I worry that transferring the credits here would cancel out their usefulness or conflict with my BS program somehow.

5a. If I could somehow pick up this AAS for free while I work toward my BSBA I could maybe jump in the job market to help support us further. How is this free by the way? (I'll revisit the thread)

Thank you for your patience and helping me improve my future,
BIG DAD

[davewill]

If you apply, you have a year to take at least one course (can be a $117 TECEP or your Capstone course) to establish enrollment. If you don't, then you would have to pay the $75 application fee later. There's no reason at all not to take the freebie now.

Yes, you can indeed use 117 alternative credits and take only the Capstone at TESU, the only limit is that you can only use 90 from any one provider, which would be hard to do anyway.

As far as sending your ACE transcript, yes, you can wait all the way to the end and send it once. Personally it would be worth the fee to do it a few times and see that all the credits are going where I intended them.

You pay the residency waiver when you apply for graduation, about three months before you actually graduate. Getting the AAS will interfere in no way with a Bachelor's from TESU. The BOG AAS is as free as it gets. The only limitation is that you must have at least 12 credits from an regionally accredited school, like a community college, or a mainstream university.

[bjcheung77]

Recommendation Note: Education is time/money dependent, don't cheap out or skimp out on your future.

1. Apply, get an evaluation of your credentials and work on your SL/Study.com courses without paying anything to TESU.

2. You transfer everything in, for BSBA/BALS degrees, the only course you should take at TESU is the 3 credit Capstone.

3. You pay each time you send a transcript from ACE to TESU, I usually get people to send it directly from SL/Study.com and when the final ACE credits come in, pay for at least one fee of $20 or a second/subsequent fee of $15 for a transcript. Don't cheap out.

4. The residency waiver is paid when you are about to graduate, just like the graduation fee needs to be paid then too.

5+5a. Don't even look at the AAS if you don't have at minimum 12 credits from a community college. Honestly, it is free plus the cost of transcripts. If you want an AA or AS that's more useful than a terminal AAS, then you can truly get it free en route to your Bachelors, WITHOUT the cost of additional transcripts.

[Ideas]

I would not bother with the BOG AAS because their rule is you cannot be enrolled somewhere else. So I believe you would have to wait many months to receive the BOG AAS before you enroll at TESU. You would then miss the better Study.com affiliate pricing, and the school policies or degree requirements could change.

The ACE transcript can wait, but it's pretty cheap to send a second or third. They are $15 after your first one which is $20. It caused me unnecessary worry because I saved myself $15 and didn't bring in my ACE credits until the end.

Although you can pay the residency waiver at the end, you can pay it early, by this June, to get the better affiliate pricing, if you plan to graduate by June 2019. It's expected to go up by hundreds.

[BigDad92]

davewill and bjcheung77

Thank you for your replies, My wife and I are going to apply now while it's free.


I appreciate your advice, we will go forward with the evaluation and begin earning alternative credits, we will attempt to only take the Capstone course if possible.

I'm going to forget about the AAS and perhaps consider earning an AA/AS while working on a(my,the?) BSBA.

a.Will the alternative credits i'm using for the BSBA also apply to an AA/AS or are there restrictions on how they overlap?
b.After I graduate, will I be able to use those same general ed. credits for another degree?

I think the next step will be to create a spreadsheet of the required courses and a plan to complete them.

I will create a separate thread to document my progress (if allowed).

[davewill]

No problem, you can use all of the credits from an associate's in your bachelor's.

There are other rules for a second degree of the same type. See here: https://blog.tesu.edu/the-secret-to-earn...ond-degree

[BigDad92]

davewill

Thank you

Ideas

Thank you for your reply, you mentioned above about 

better Study.com affiliate pricing

Does this also relate to TESU Journey?

FIN-301 Principles of Finance UL 3.00 Study.com ($0 because of scholarship, I hope)

Global Management Study.com ($0 because of scholarship, I hope)

Could you elaborate about this deal?

Do you know if financial aid might cover the residency?

Thank you

[scaffdog]

I would not bother with the BOG AAS because their rule is you cannot be enrolled somewhere else. So I believe you would have to wait many months to receive the BOG AAS before you enroll at TESU. You would then miss the better Study.com affiliate pricing, and the school policies or degree requirements could change.

The ACE transcript can wait, but it's pretty cheap to send a second or third. They are $15 after your first one which is $20. It caused me unnecessary worry because I saved myself $15 and didn't bring in my ACE credits until the end.

Although you can pay the residency waiver at the end, you can pay it early, by this June, to get the better affiliate pricing, if you plan to graduate by June 2019. It's expected to go up by hundreds.

I didn't realize this was an option.  I should be able to get everything done in order to graduate in March 2019(maybe December 2018 but I doubt it) so it sounds like I should definitely pay the residency waiver June 1st to get the Study.com discount.  After that the only outstanding item would be to pay the Graduation fee...which is done when I submit everything for graduation auditing correct?  If I can get enough done to enroll in the August Capstone then I could push it up to December of this year according to TESU website.